Call centres, the good the bad and then there's Virgin Media

[FreshAL]

Just had to call two contact centres, update my address, change billing details etc.

First call was to Virgin Media. God, what a horrendous experience. I lost count of the number of times I heard "Oh, the system can't do that". I want to change my address, not launch a fucking space shuttle. Utterly useless, a truly painful experience for something that should have been so simple.

Then I called Thames Water. Honestly, I was expecting this to be worse, but actually was brilliant. Pretty much the same request handled no problem, and hardly any time on hold. 9/10 for Thames Water. Only improvement could have been a bird with a nice accent.

[pa_broon74]

Trying pay council tax using Edinburgh City Council's telephone payment system.

It has obduracy and obtuseness built into it.

I used to have telewest/blueyonder. I once accused an operator with an Indian accent which I couldn't understand (he couldn't understand me either) of being in India. He wasn't, he was in Edinburgh about 4 miles away.

Oh and finally, phoning for train times... The call centre is in Mumbai, I had to spell every word I said, even Edinburgh.


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Didn't catch anything.

[Flip]

[ncrn]

Loved the bit about not wanting to launch a space shuttle

Reminds me of earlier, I try to call my rental agencies maintenance to report the dishwasher is fucked. It tells me they don't do calls now and to email this address, so I email the address and I get a snooty email back telling me that I shouldn't be emailing this specific address weird..
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[Lady P]

If you want to call a " call centre " do it before midday

[st3v3]

[Phoenix]

I do that with insurance companies when getting a quote. You can usually tell within about 5 seconds if what should be a 5minute phonecall is going to take forever because the phone is being answered by a lobotomy victim (they're usually indian) and just hang up and try again or move to a different company.

Virgin media are horrendous, Telewest weren't great but it just became a total pisstake when Virgin took them over, would never touch them again no matter how cheap they make it.

[Seb]

Definitely got to agree with Virgin Media's support line, the little UK centre is ace, unfortunately the outsourced side is shockingly bad, the majority are utterly incompetent, some are flat out arrogant and I've even had one try to fob me off on the comedy quid a minute line to deal with a year long+ ticket I've had open that is plain as day an ISP issue. (My bandwidth routinely caps at 100kps even to virgin's own servers whilst spoofing different mac addresses dramatically changes my peering and bandwidth, this happens both on and off peak and I'm not even coming close to tripping fair use caps on my line, any suggestions are welcome!)
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2010 Triumph 1050 Sprint ST

[JonB]

Well i've used Virgin Media call centres and admittedly they are bad, but NOWHERE NEAR as bad as Three call centres. I won't be on that network because of that reason.
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[Chriss]

I've actually stayed with three because of the good, all be it, slow service I've had. No matter what I want to do, they generally have done it. I used to be with O2, great another arrogant English who fobs me off, hangs up on me, and is generally useless.
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[GAS]

Well Virgin media are okay until you ask for your services to cut.

I phoned (due to money being tight) and asked if it was possible to cut my package down to basic TV and down one level on broadband ,also never stopped there removed some features from phone service explained it will hopefully only be for a 6 months or so and was told NO im sorry we cant do that again i explained the situation and was told NO but we can ADD to your pack so i hung up and re-dialled and asked to speak to disconnections explained i was not happy with the company and now want them to collect all there equipment, Nice lady on the phone said how about reducing your service and i explained this was not an option according to your colleague. no no of course i can and done it straight away

Moral is if you dont get what you want from one try another person

[The Shaggy D.A.]

Moral is that whatever you want, if you want it done properly and cleanly, ask for disconnections first
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[WildGoose]

I always fail the security check for Barclays telephone banking, thanks to indian call centre not understanding, despite in fact being the account holder. Work that one out.
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[Noxious89123]

[WildGoose]

[Noxious89123]

The madness... The fuckers only call when you don't want them too...

I've seen on atleast 3 occasions where partially/mostly DEAF customers have been called, and upon passing the phone to their other half have been told that "we can't speak to you, only the account holder". I mean ffs!
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[Carl_steveo]

I work for the Tax Credit Office. I have to say that 80% of the work i deal with is because our contact centre have fucked up. For instance if you and your partner ring up and say you have moved house, seriously how fucking hard is it to ask have both applicants moved house. They never ever do that, which means we end up with two seperate addresses and me hounding people till nine at night asking security questions and address details.

But some people are happy that we are an english speaking centre. Pity its in sunderland and no one fucking understands a word we say.

[rc211v]

anyone spoken to filipinos?
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VFR400 (NC30)

[Shay HTFC]

[killa]

I find the Indian operators don't have the common sense either, i can cope with the accent most of the time but they dont try and help you out with the fact they no nothing about the service they provide.
I had one the other week tell me to hold after i explained my issue with the bank and the line went dead.
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Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
Bike:- Yamaha TRX850 | Killas Biking History | Killas Gaming History | Killas autmotive history

[growler]

try calling a call centre when you have a bit of a speak impedement and getting a non english speaking advisor

I will change suppliers simple because of that
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DILLIGAF

[Fatal1ty]

I used to work in a BT call centre under HITA, which is home remote it support. Using remote access etc.


And seriously when we got transfers from offshore call centres they were shocking, i feel sorry for the customers.


People getting thrown around to 10 + different call centres

[Chriss]

[The Shaggy D.A.]

[st3v3]

3G are the worst I've said before, I cancelled both my account with them and they still won't stop, the guy was shouting down the phone and admitting they were at fault, I told him he needed a course in customer services because his skills were disgusting, I work in customer services and I would never speak to a customer that way, he said "excuse me", I said, "you heard me, its incompetent and un professional of you at the very least to be speaking to me like that when I'm talking(he was talking over me) - thanks for your time; bye".. then hung up.
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